The three stages of brand growth: tools, media, and IP

Marketing does not mean promotion .

It is not the case that we have to produce products and lay out channels before we start thinking about marketing. That's just promotion, and promotion is just one part of the 4Ps of marketing.

In fact, marketing precedes all business activities of an enterprise. It starts before you start a company or make products. You have to think clearly about who your consumers are and why they want to buy from you before registering a company.

This is the first step in marketing.

Then, during the entire R&D and production process, the core issue you need to focus on is: what kind of differentiated value can you create for consumers? That is why consumers should pay.

This is the second step of marketing.

The growth path of a product/ brand includes three stages: tools , media, and IP.

1. Tools Phase

The core of product design is to meet the needs of target users , solve problems in consumers' lives, and provide tool attributes.

For example, drinks are used to quench thirst, fast food is used to satisfy hunger, laundry detergent is used for cleaning, and sports shoes are used for protection.

For consumers, products are tools to solve problems.

The value of this tool includes two aspects: characteristics and quality. The first is how effective the product is in meeting user needs, and the second is how efficiently the product demonstrates that effectiveness. That is, the value of highlighting characteristics and the value of ensuring quality.

2. Media Stage

Products become the medium and carrier for users to express themselves.

In the minds of users, a product is not just a product, but also an indispensable role in the users' lives.

Products not only have instrumental value, but also represent users' desires, feelings, concepts, attitudes, emotions, personality, image and identity. They are the media that present users' inner thoughts.

At this time, the brand is born, which is a community composed of products and users.

For example, the instrumental value of liquor is that alcohol stimulates blood circulation, speeds up the heartbeat, paralyzes the brain and central nervous system, and thus makes people feel excited and physically and mentally relaxed. In fact, making people drunk is the function of liquor.

If liquor really only has instrumental value, then how many people would still be willing to drink it? After all, many people think that liquor tastes bad, and everyone will feel uncomfortable after getting drunk.

The true value of liquor lies in its media value.

Liquor can express personal feelings. People can sing to it when they are proud and drink to drown their sorrows when they are frustrated. Liquor can express the feelings between people. People can drink with close friends and have fun. Liquor can express attitude towards others. It is a kind of courtesy and respect for inviting guests to dinner or business banquets. Liquor can witness important occasions in life. It is a sense of ritual in life, such as wedding wine, full-month wine, and celebratory wine. Wine is a medium.

For wine brands, media value is greater than tool value.

3. IP Stage

In the process of socialization, brands become social currency and group consensus among the public or a specific group.

It has a certain meaning recognized by members of the group and symbolizes a certain culture. At this point, we can say that the brand has become an IP, becoming the company's intellectual property that is difficult for others to imitate and copy.

For example, how do you prove that you have money? Are you a successful person? Answer: Buy a BMW or a Mercedes. It's not that you think BMW can represent your status, but that society recognizes BMW as a symbol of status.

For example, why do many public and business banquets only serve Moutai? Because Moutai has become a social currency, Moutai is a social IP. The status of Moutai as the national liquor is the fundamental value that is truly difficult to replicate. What is truly valuable is not the property rights such as workshops and wine cellars, but the intellectual property rights of the Moutai brand, namely IP.

From tools to media to IP, these are the three stages a brand needs to go through during its growth process.

So when we talk about brand value, we should know that a brand has three kinds of value: instrumental value, individual value, and social value.

Instrumental value carries quality characteristics, individual value carries self-expression, and social value carries group consensus.

Like Coca-Cola , it's just a bottle of sugar water after all.

The so-called secret formula of Coca-Cola that has been maintained for more than 100 years is just a publicity gimmick, otherwise Coca-Cola would not have launched New Coke in the 1960s.

It quenches thirst, tastes good, and the carbonation makes people feel refreshed; these are the functional values ​​of Coca-Cola.

But this thing called Coke makes you gain weight, so I don’t usually drink Coke. When to drink? When you are happy.

Coca-Cola’s brand communication over the past century has always associated Coke with happiness, open happiness, and a refreshing start. Drinking Coke is a happy and joyful thing, and this is the individual value of Coca-Cola (media).

During World War II, American soldiers left their homeland and went to fight in Europe and the Pacific.

Coca-Cola then announced: "No matter where our troops are, no matter how much it costs our company, we must ensure that every soldier can drink a bottle of Coca-Cola for only 5 cents!"

In accordance with U.S. military standards, Coca-Cola opened bottling plants in the United States and established as many as 64 bottling plants in various war zones to distribute to U.S. troops as troop supplies. In the intervals between brutal wars, between life and death, blood and fire, drinking a bottle of cool and refreshing cola is an enjoyment as wonderful as heaven.

Why fight? It is to defend one's right and freedom to drink Coke.

In 1971, Coca-Cola launched the commercial "Hilltop", in which young people from all over the world gathered on a mountaintop in Italy and sang sincerely "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke".

This advertisement caused a huge response around the world. Coca-Cola received more than 100,000 letters praising this advertisement. It is also considered the most successful advertisement in Coca-Cola's history.

The message conveyed by this advertisement is that everyone can enjoy a bottle of Coca-Cola regardless of age, gender, skin color or country.

Coca-Cola has become a universal social currency. All over the world, Coca-Cola is a symbol of the American dream, a symbol of globalization, and a symbol of equality for all and world peace.

This is the truly unique and differentiated value of the Coca-Cola IP that cannot be replicated.

Value design runs through the entire marketing process.

Based on our understanding of consumers, we need to think about and design what is the instrumental value of the product/brand in meeting user needs, what is the individual value of providing users with self-expression, and for which subculture groups to create social value, so that the brand becomes a group consensus and social currency.

Only when a brand has a clear value design can it have a real differentiated competitive advantage.

In the 2017 China Rap, you can see a large number of street fashion brands, Superme , in almost every episode.

Supreme is not only a social currency commonly used in street culture to show one's own fashion, but it is also a real hard currency that can be used as an investment .

The key to Supreme's success lies in its roots in street culture, targeting skateboarders and hip-hop artists and becoming a symbol of counterculture.

Its principle for choosing stores is to look at the depth of local skateboarding culture, and it insists that each store be operated by someone who is truly influential in the skateboarding circle.

This makes Supreme the consensus and belief of this specific group of skateboarders, and accumulates extremely high social value for the brand. The Supreme brand has become a cultural IP, and every item it releases can even be called a conceptual art project.

(Bricks released by Supreme in 2016)

A great brand is one that, through tools, media, and IP, ultimately becomes a unique entity within social culture and a specific group.

The design of a value system from instrumental value to individual value and then to social value is the brand’s real differentiated competitive advantage.

Once the value system design is completed, the next step is to consider how to deliver this value to consumers. This process is the management of user cognition.

Source: Empty Hands (ID: firesteal13)